Chapter Text
It has been a good couple of months for Sonic. Yes, he almost did die to get here, but he wouldn’t change anything about it now. Even if he wasn’t having the best of times right now. He scowled as he looked at the screen. His tan furred muzzle twisted, as he looked at the tv screen, 3rd place. He was currently sandwiched between Tom and Maddie on the couch. The two humans that adopted him, his two favorite humans in the world, but at the moment, he considered dropping their rank. He knows it is ridiculous, but Sonic can’t help it. They were playing Mario Kart, as one does on a Wednesday night after homework was ‘finished’. But he kept losing. He is newish to the game, but he has gotten 2cd and even 1st a couple of times before, but today? He kept coming in last, for 4 straight races in a row, and with each loss, he got increasingly silent and upset. His scowl deepened when Tom gloated, again.
“1st place again. It feels good to dominate.” Sonic felt a hand press on top of his head, and then his entire head was rocked back and forth as Tom roughly rubbed the top of his head. His quills swayed with his head as it was being shaken. “And last again for you. What is going on bud?” Tom teased Sonic both mentally and physically, “What happened to, ‘I’m going to win every match.’.” Sonic dropped the controller into his lap and reached up with his hands to stop the violent head rubs from Tom. His gloved hands found Tom’s wrist, but instead of it stopping the human, now Sonic’s entire upper body was being shaken. He didn’t have enough strength to stop Tom. Not liking it in the least, Sonic pulled out the big guns.
“Maddieee!” Sonic whined, his voice slightly distorted from his body being shaken. His knight in shining armor answered his plea as Maddie smacked Tom’s arm.
“Leave him alone.” Her tone was scolding but her smile said otherwise.
“Fine.” Tom pulled his hand off the top of Sonic’s head. “I thought you liked head rubs. I wonder what else you fib about?” Sonic brought his hands to the top of his head to smooth down the ruffled fur.
“Hmm.” Sonic scooted closer to Maddie and tilted his to hide the smile on his muzzle. “If I told you, then you would have to arrest me.”
Tom shot a look at Maddie over the top of Sonic’s head, she just rolled her eyes. But Tom, wasn’t one to let go of an opportunity to mess with the hedgehog “That bad?”
Sonic’s smile turned into a frown. He didn’t actually do anything that would get him arrested and he was 98% sure Tom and Maddie knew that. But what if they thought he was series? What if they thought he was a bad kid, even though -in his opinion – he’s the best. Sonic needed to clear this up pronto. “Well no, I didn’t actually do anything illegal.” He tilted his head up to look at Maddie, “I was just kidding.”
“I know sweetie. You could never do anything wrong.” She reached down and lightly scratched the top of his furry head. The game was momentarily forgotten; Sonic melted into her side; he liked these scratches more than Tom’s.
“Don’t fall for his tricks Maddie.” Sonic’s ears flicked at Tom’s words. He turned his head to face him. Which caused Maddie to have to lean back a little to avoid being poked by the hedgehogs’ quills. There was a slight learning curve. Initially, when they adopted him there wasn’t much contact. Maddie guessed it was because he was nervous? Scared? She didn’t exactly know, but after a couple of weeks, Sonic got more comfortable with affection, and from there on, he was basically attached to the leg of whoever was home. Which they loved that he was feeling this way after such a short time. But it did come with some hiccups, namely how Sonic isn’t always aware of quills, so there have been multiple incidents of Sonic ‘stabbing’ them. But it always left them feeling more guilty than Sonic, mostly because Sonic would act like it was the end of the world for him. He has been getting better, but when he gets excited or riled up, then he sorta forgets. Like in this moment, when he turned his head, if she didn’t move back then his quills would have pricked her.
“It’s not tricks! I am just basically perfect.” Sonic was too humble to say he was perfect, but add a basically, he could agree with himself on that. He then grabbed the controller, “Can we play with ai too this time?” Sonic thought that if he couldn’t beat Tom and Maddie then he could at least beat the ai.
“Sure thing buddy.” Tom then toggled on the extra racers, and randomly picked a track. It was rainbow road. Sonic frown deepened at that. He was not good at this map. He always flies off the edge!
“Can you pick another map?”
“Sorry Sonic but it’s locked in.” It wasn’t locked in, and everyone knew it.
“No it’s not! Maddie, can’t you make him change it?” He turned his head back to her so he could look up at her.
Maddie opened her mouth to tell Tom to change it but paused. Sonic actually does have me wrapped around his finger. She closed her mouth for a second while she thought of what to say, “I’m with Tom on this one. I’m sure you do great.” Sonic did not like that at all.
“Hmmphf.” He turned back to the tv and scooted away from Maddie. “Just start it already.” If Maddie wanted to betray him, then he wouldn’t sit so close to her.
After that, the round started. And Sonic was not having it, the very first turn, he flew off the map. He gripped the controller as he entered last place. He respawned and did a little better but was being outpaced by everyone. Sonic leaned forward, but his position had no effect on the outcome. He kept going off the edge and was being lapped. His quills bristled ever so slightly in agitation.
“You do know that the best strategy is to stay on the track?” He said after he saw Sonic fall off the map again. Sonic rolled his eyes, but he was upset about the comment. Obviously he knows that.
“Stop screen watching!” Sonic knew that screen watching had no effect on his progress, but wanted to get some sort of comeback in. Soon the race ended with Sonic in last place, behind all the ai. That was the last straw for Sonic. “I’m done.” He put the controller on the couch beside him then stood up. “I’m going to go play a fun game now.”
“Aww. Don’t be like that.” Tom told the upset hedgehog. “You can pick the next map if that’ll make you happy.”
“I am happy!” Sonic crossed his arms. “I’m leaving because I’m bored. Nothing else.” That wasn’t the reason, and Tom was about to tease Sonic about it, but he caught his wife’s look. He put his hands up in surrender.
“It’s okay if you don’t want to play anymore tonight. You can always try again another night.” Maddie reassured Sonic. Her reassurance did the trick, as the irritation in his chest lessoned.
“Maybe I will.” Sonic started his walk to the stairs, but paused, he turned back and called for their dog. “Ozzie. Come here boy.” When the dog, who was laying down on his doggie bed, looked up but didn’t move. Sonic patted his knees and said, “Come here.” When the dog made no indication of moving, Sonic tried again, “Now!!!” The raised voice finally got Ozzie up and out of the bed; he trotted to Sonic. With the dog following him, Sonic made his way up the stairs and to his room.
Tom smiled at Maddie, “Now that Sonic’s distracted, how about we get distracted?” He then scooted closer to her and wrapped an arm around her pulling her in close.
“Hmmm.” She let him pull her in close, “What if Sonic decides comes down?”
Tom was not about to let Sonic stop this… again, “Come on. With his Galactic Base Builder game? “ The only reason Tom knows its name is, at every possible moment, Sonic will bring it up. In the car. At dinner. Anywhere. Quite frankly, Tom thinks Sonic is obsessed, but he doesn’t have the heart to tell Sonic to take a break from it. “I think an earthquake could happen and he wouldn’t realize.”
“Well in that case.” Maddie said and the rest was history.
“Are you ready to prove yourself?” A voice spoke out.
“I-I am.”
“Your target is a sheriff in Green Hills Montana. Take him out before next Wednesday and your initiation will be complete.”
“Under-Understood.” The 2 people spoke in private, at least they thought they were alone.
Monitoring conversation: …
Probability of violence: 98.3%
Determining relevancy: irrelevant
Deleting from database: …
Error: …
Continuing with deletion: error
Deletion protocol overridden: …
Contgenicey protocol: execute
Finding potential assets: …
Potential asset found: …
Sonic was in his room, playing a game while Ozzie ‘watched’. Unaware that once again, his life is about to be upheaved by Harolds creation. He was sprawled out in a chair; he was waiting for Galactic Base Builder to boot up. His favorite game, that he has been spending an -in other people’s opinion, not his- unhealthy amount of time in. His legs dangled off, but his feet didn’t touch the floor. A side effect of being a hedgehog in a human house. Some crates and other stepstools were around critical areas of the house that he couldn’t reach. Though, it’s not too bad. Especially since his adoptive parents offered to get him mobian sized furniture, but he declined because he didn’t want them to spend money on something so frivolous.
Running simulations: …
Probability of success: 0.08%
Reevaluating: …
The game finally loaded in. Sonic was quick to go to his previous save and load it.
Defining parameters: …
Overcoming parameters: …
The clock read 9:43 when Sonic finally logged off and got ready for bed. He thought about going to wish Tom and Maddie goodnight, but since they betrayed him. He decided they would have to do without tonight, but he would be more lenient in the morning. He turned off the lights and climbed into bed. Then without much prompt, he drifted off to sleep.
Activating module: interface
Interface capability: limited
Objective: warn potential asset